Almost Cooperstown

Send us Fan Mail Parker Meadows had the backyard moment for the #Tigers in San Diego this week hitting a 2 out 2 strike grand slam in the 9th inning with his team down by 3 runs.  #Cubs Shota Imanaga was part of a combined no-hitter this week. Meh! We didn't talk about the #Brewers because they are still in cruise mode. #Dodgers & #Phillies have best records over Milwaukee. #Yankees need...

Send us Fan Mail Automated balls and strikes, will be instituted in MLB, eventually NCAthers wont be able to 'steal' strikes by trying to trick the umpires. Tennis hasn't missed anything moving to an automated line calling system and neither will MLB.  Will catchers be able to focus more on baserunners? Maybe. Will they have to hit more than they do now? Yes.  The job of pitch frami...

Send us Fan Mail Can a team go 22-3 to make a playoff run? It can happen but it's not likely. That's where some of the teams that are on the bubble are right now. #Cubs, #Tigers, #RedSox are those kinds of teams with the #Mets not far behind.  September baseball is fantastic and there are still many things left to be decided before we start hearing about 'Magic' numbers to clin...

Send us Fan Mail We didn't need to wait until the end of the #MLB season to review the #Mets performance.  Are we happy? Yes and No? Was it a good season? Yes and No. The team has undergone a lot of changes since Opening Day.  Rosters are different, a rookie manager Carlos Mendoza has navigated as best he can without having his #1 starter Kodai Senga in the mix. We hope the team will rally an...

Send us Fan Mail 40 Homers and 40 steals is cool - Ronald Acuna of the #braves showed that last year. Shohei Ohtani is vying to have a 50/50 season - 50 home runs and 50 steals! Plus Ohtani is throwing off the mound! Will he come back for the playoffs? OK not likely but wouldn't that be cool?  Aaron Judge hit HR's 50 & 51 on Sunday to lead the #yankees to a rout of the #rockies. #dod...

Send us Fan Mail The pitcher who has hit the most batters in MLB history is one that you have almost certainly never heard about before - Gus Weyhing. Walter 'Big' Train Johnson is 2nd and Randy 'Big Unit' Johnson third all-time hitting batters and they pitched 75 years apart. If you think players are getting hit and injured more often there's reason for that. In baseball...

Send us Fan Mail We did not even talk about #phillies Weston Wilson who became the first Phillie rookie to hit for the cycle!  Complete game shutouts are back in vogue.  Injuries still are in the picture for pitchers.  Outfield defense is better than ever. We talk about why.  Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!  Please subscribe t...

Send us Fan Mail Mark has been a SABR member for 4 years but has never attended the annual convention. This year it was in Minneapolis in early August and the Twin Cities proved to be a great location for a content-rich three days of baseball talk and presentations.  HOFers Rod Carew and Tony Oliva were on a hitter's panel together and HOFers Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat on another along with f...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #250!  #Phillies, #Brewers, #Dodgers, #Orioles, #Yankees, #Guardians all are within a game of one another for the best record in #baseball!  Juan Soto hit 2HRs Sunday to lead the Bombers over the fading #Rangers who lost Max Scherzer for the year to a bad shoulder. BTW Jacob DeGrom still has not pitched in 2024. It's getting to why bother time.  Giancarlo Stanton is 7...

Send us Fan Mail The #Mariners won 116 games in 2001 but could not win a playoff series. The 1906 #Cubs also won 116 games and did win the World Series. It's happened other times as well. But most of the time if a team can win 108 games or more they do go on to win the World Series.  Which of those teams do we think is the best of them best? 1998 Yankees? 1961 @Yankees? 1986 @Mets? 1975 @Reds...

Send us Fan Mail @yankees Aaron Judge was walked to lead off the bottom of the 2nd inning. Apparently the Blue Jays felt he was in scoring position (thanks  @threeinningfan !), Jackson Holliday returned to replace the injured Jordan Westburg for the Orioles and he returned with bang in the form of a grand slam!  #phillies are leaking oil but Zach Wheeler righted the ship on Sunday.  Shohei Othani...

Send us Fan Mail We thought we could do all 30 teams in 30 minutes but it took longer despite how fast we talked.  Most teams were in the middle but there were winners and there were losers and we called them out.  No top 100 prospects were traded. No big names were traded. The whole thing was a big dud!  But that did not stop us.  Intro & Outro music this season courtesy of Mercury Maid! Chec...

Send us Fan Mail Players have been traded but we didn't really talk about that. Dylan Cease pitched a no-hitter for the #Padres & is on an amazing run. #Mets Kodai Senga pitched so well in his return from a shoulder injury. He then went down for the season with a calf inju/ry. So Mets.  Some teams have been positioning themselves by removing salaries so they can perhaps acquire an expensi...

Send us Fan Mail Manager Jim Leyland, along with all-time greats Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer all were officially inducted into Cooperstown this past Sunday. All 4 made heartfelt and good speeches. It's always great to see the amount of HOFers that show up on a hot July afternoon to sit outside in a jacket and tie to show their respect for the newest inductees.  Helton and Mauer...

Send us Fan Mail At least we got to see Paul Skenes pitch to Aaron Judge. It lasted all of one pitch however. The All-Star Game lost its juice years ago. Mark suggested counting All-Star stats in career totals. For whatever that would be worth. To add to that there are no longer Thursday games post All-Star break so four full days without real baseball that counts is awful!  What's remaining...

Send us Fan Mail Best manager of the first 100 games? MVP candidates? Who might be traded? Will the Orioles hold on?: How about the @clevelandguardians?  Are the  @brewers for real? Who might win the triple crown? There are several good choices. Who are the best rookies and there are a bunch of them!  We talk about the teams that might be sellers and buyers. And that what's left after the All...

Send us Fan Mail MLB's annual trade show and conference for players has started. It's only for the best players as the non-All-Stars are home with their families. For four days!  The break for players is welcomed. Fans may feel differently.  There are 36 first-time All-Stars. That's amazing! The Phillies have 8 All-Stars. @Pirates Paul Skenes is starting the All-Star game for the Na...

Send us Fan Mail The most famous stolen base in MLB history occured in the playoffs but not the World Series. Gordon mentioned that before the modern era there was a period in which taking an extra base - like going first to third, was counted as a stolen base.  MLB wants more action to show off player athleticism. They succeeded but stealing bases does not automatically lead to winning MLB games....

Send us Fan Mail #Twins Jose Miranda has hits in 12 straight at-bats. Amazing!  Only three other hitters - Walt Dropo, Pinky Higgins, and Johnny Kling have done it before - but you knew that!   #Cubs Justin Steele pitched a complete game on 95 pitches to get his first victory of 2024. It was a pseudo-Maddux.  But the Cubs still struggled this week.  Worst run-differential in MLB belongs to the #Wh...

Send us Fan Mail Mets closer Edwin Diaz got himself suspended for 10 games for having too much rosin and legal goop on his hand a week ago Sunday. The roster spot cannot be filled so the Mets will play short for 10 games. PED violations that result in a player suspension do not impact filling the roster spot the next day. Does that make ANY sense?  Wild card race in the NL is nuts with 9 teams hav...

Send us Fan Mail Willie Mays did not flaunt it as much as did Joe DiMaggio who reveled in being called Greatest Living Ballplayer (GLB) that he insisted on being introduced that way at public events. But after Joe D. passed away the debate was between Henry Aaron and Willie Mays with Mays' superior defense being a deciding factor.  Both Aaron and Mays were amazing and we discuss the whole ide...

Send us Fan Mail Why did McDonald's allow Grimace to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game?  It looked bad until the Mets promptly won 7 games in a row!  The White Sox had a player get doubled off to end a game when he forgot how many outs there were. Kyle Finnegan pitch-clock violated the game-winning run - the first time that's happened since the new rules were implemented in 2023. ...

Send us Fan Mail Since we are father and son we're very interested in baseball fathers and sons.  Bobby and Barry Bonds are at the top of the all-time father and son combinations when it comes to bWAR. We talk about them and all the other top father-son combinations.  We also cover the 19 father-son combinations represented in MLB today based on opening day rosters.  How may fathers were HOFe...

Send us Fan Mail There were many big stories in baseball last week. We did not even talk about the College World Series which had 3 walkoff wins in the first two days!   More injuries for the Orioles pitching staff and the Astros have more to deal with too.  Aaron Judge continues to fly and #Rangers pitcher David Robertson had a week he'll never forget!  Which teams might be sellers you don&a...

Send us Fan Mail Last season the Los Angeles #Angels with Shohei Ohtani pounded the Colorado #Rockies 25-1.  It was 23-0 in the 4th inning so as we see it a true blowout in which the runs are scored early and often for a team winning by 10 or more runs.  Are blowouts fun for fans? It depends.  Losing side managers hate them as the goal becomes save the pitcher arms.  But a blowout is still only on...